As I mentioned in my previous post Easter Bunny Blondie Bars, I spent Easter weekend in Galveston with Greg’s family. There were 12 of us and to satisfy everyone’s appetite, Greg’s mom split all 12 of us into groups and announced that each group was responsible for making one meal for the weekend. In case you’re wondering, this worked out perfectly since there were a total of 6 meals; 2 dinners, 2 lunches, and 2 breakfasts. 12 people, 6 meals, you’ve got yourself six groups of two!
If you haven’t already guessed by the title of this post, I (I as in me and Greg, although the only thing Greg did was the taste testing) was in charge of breakfast. Just kidding, Greg is a great sous chef! I knew I needed to cook something big enough to feed everyone in our large group, and because we were celebrating Easter I wanted to make something colorful and fresh. For some reason “colorful” and “fresh” are two of the words that automatically pop into my mind when I hear the word “Easter”, so I decided to go with it.
I’ve made several French toast casseroles before, but none quite like this. You see, I’m what I like to call an improviser in the kitchen, meaning that some of the time (okay, a lot of the time) I say screw the recipe, I’m going to do it my way! Sometimes this works out to my advantage and sometimes it does not. Luckily for me, my improvising with this recipe worked out to my advantage. Thank God…otherwise I would’ve had 12 hungry people to feed!
I love this Lemon Strawberry French Toast Casserole because they’re SO easy to make, and at 177 calories per serving, how on Earth can you resist? If you’re a newbie in the kitchen, don’t let the long list of ingredients scare you away! (Many of these ingredients are spices of some sort.) There are really only four parts to this recipe; bread, egg mixture, topping, oven. Pretty simple, right?
First start by cutting your bread into cubes. I suggest using Mrs. Bairds bread (yes, the kind you would use on a PB&J sandwich). Obviously the healthier option would be to use whole wheat bread, but if you have some picky eaters (or you’re one yourself) you can most certainly use white or “whole grain white” bread. You’ll hardly taste the difference once your casserole is cooked.
Cut each slice of bread into cubes. I know this is hard to visualize with “sandwich” bread because its not eaxactly big and “fluffly” like french or chibata bread, but hear me out. The goal is to cut each slice of bread into 9 as-close-to-equal-as-possible sized pieces, or as I said earlier “cubes”.
With a sharp knife, make the shape of a “tic-tac-toe” board on your bread. Two vertical lines with two horizontal lines running through the center. You know that childhood game you use X’s and O”s to challenge your opponent with? Well, the tic-tac-toe board has 9 equally sized boxes, and guess what? Each slice of bread should be cut into 9 pieces! Coincidence? Who knows! But you get what I’m saying, right?
Once your bread has been cut into cube-like pieces, place them in a greased baking dish. I highly recommend using an 11×7, or similar size baking dish. You want to add enough bread to pack and fill the baking dish (think very minimal empty spaces when looking straight down at your casserole-in-progress), but you do not want your dish to be overflowing with bread. You should be able to cover your casserole with foil without having to squish your bread down. Its probably safe to say you probably won’t use the entire load of bread, dependnig on what size you get, but keep in mind you will be adding the egg mixture to your bread cubes. If you find out you need to remove or add some pieces of bread after adding the egg mixture, I definitely suggest doing so.
Next you will make your egg mixture. Although the list of ingredients looks cumbersome, I assure you that this is the easiest part! Crack seven eggs into a bowl. Add in the greek yogurt, skim milk, salt, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, the pumpkin pie spice, vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons of sugar or truvia, and beat together with a whisk. If you don’t have a whisk, use a fork. You want to make sure the egg yolks are no longer intact when you’re done mixing. All ingredients should appear to be “liquefied” and smooth. Once they look like this, simply pour the egg mixture over your bread “cubes”, and adjust, add, or remove bread cubes as needed. If you’re up for it, sprinkle some more pumpkin pie spice over the top of your casserole. Then cover it with foil and tuck it into bed in the refrigerator for the night (or at least a 6 hour nap) and leave it there until the morning.
In the morning you will untuck your casserole and pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a bowl, whisk together ricotta cheese, the juice of two lemons, and 2 teaspoons (or more if desired) of lemon zest. A word to the wise, its a lot easier to zest your lemons before you juice them. Once these three ingredients appear to be “well combined”, pour on top of casserole and sprinkle additional brown sugar on top. Use a spatula or the back of a large spoon to spread evenly across casserole, as if you were icing a sheet cake. Once you’re satisfied, pop that sucker in the oven for 40 – 45 minutes. You’ll begin to notice that the ricotta will begin to look custardy. This is a good thing; its supposed to look this way! In the oven, the lemon juice and ricotta will combine together with your casserole to give it a cheese-cake-like appearance and taste with way less calories. Mmmm! See the finished product, fresh out of the oven in the picture below:
You will know your casserole is done cooking when the ricotta begins to look hard and custardy, and the tops of the visible bread “cubes” are golden brown. When the timer goes off, remove your casserole from the oven and place on the countertop to cool.
WAIT! You’re not off the hook yet, you still need to make the strawberry syrup sauce to place on top of the casserole. You can either make this the night before and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator, or you can make it while your casserole is baking in the oven. The decision is yours! In case you’re wondering, the strawberry syrup sauce is used in lieu of traditional maple syrup.
You only need three simple ingredients to make the sauce; water, sliced strawberries, and sugar or truvia. All you need to do is bring the water and sugar to a rolling boil in a sauce pan, add sliced strawberries and continuously stir (at a rolling boil) for 2 minutes. It’s very important to constantly stir the water and sugar until it reaches a rolling boil so that the sugar does not stick to the bottom of the pan. After 2 minutes, reduce heat and stop stirring, allowing strawberries to simmer. This will allow the sauce to thicken and take on a jelly-like appearance. Let your strawberries simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring every now and then. Once you are satisfied with the way your sauce tastes and looks, remove from heat.
Congratulations, you’re done and its time to dig into your casserole! You can either place the strawberry sauce on top of the casserole before serving, or add the desired amount of sauce to each serving. I chose to allow my guests to add their own sauce, but feel free to serve your casserole however you like!
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